different between harbinger vs prelude

English

Etymology

Originally, a person that is sent in advance to arrange lodgings. From Middle English herbergeour, from Old French herbergeor (French hébergeur), from Frankish *heriberga (“lodging, inn”, literally “army shelter”), from Proto-Germanic *harjaz (“army”) + *bergô (“protection”). Compare German Herberge, Italian albergo, Dutch herberg, English harbor. More at here, borrow.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??b?nd??/
• (US) enPR: här?b?nj?r, IPA^(key): /?h??b?nd???/

Noun

harbinger (plural harbingers)

1. (usually in the plural) A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something.

   Synonyms: forewarning, herald, omen, premonition, sign, signal, prophet

   • 1828, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney

     I knew by these harbingers who were coming.
2. (obsolete) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when travelling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
   • 1644, Thomas Fuller, Truth Maintained (a sermon)

     outward decency […] is the Harbinger to provide the lodging for inward holinesse

Translations

Verb

harbinger (third-person singular simple present harbingers, present participle harbingering, simple past and past participle harbingered)

1. (transitive) To announce or precede; to be a harbinger of.

   Synonym: herald

Translations

See also

• bellwether

Further reading

• Harbinger in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• harbinger in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Alternative forms

• prælude (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle French prélude (“singing to test a musical instrument”), from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin prael?dere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??l(j)u?d/, /?p?e?l(j)u?d/, /?p?i?lu?d/

Noun

prelude (plural preludes)

1. An introductory or preliminary performance or event.

   Synonym: preface

2. (music) A short, free-form piece of music, originally one serving as an introduction to a longer and more complex piece; later, starting with the Romantic period, generally a stand-alone piece. [from 1650s]

   Synonyms: intrada, overture

3. (programming) A standard module or library of subroutines and functions to be imported, generally by default, into a program.
   • 2018, Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, The Rust Programming Language, No Starch Press (?ISBN), page 232:

     In the same way that Rust has a general prelude that brings certain types and functions into scope automatically, the std::io module has its own prelude of common types and functions you'll need when working with I/O.

4. (figuratively) A forerunner to anything.

Synonyms

• forestory

Translations

Verb

prelude (third-person singular simple present preludes, present participle preluding, simple past and past participle preluded)

1. To introduce something, as a prelude.
2. To play an introduction or prelude; to give a prefatory performance.
   • 1829, Francis Jeffrey, "Heman's Poems", in The Edinburgh Review October 1829

     We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point.

References

Italian

Verb

prelude

1. third-person singular present indicative of preludere

Anagrams

• puledre